Pantocratoria wrote:"Well that rather clarifies the matter." Sir Thierry replied with a sour look on his face. He looked up to one of his advisors and made a face. "I didn't call you to argue the merits of the idea but rather to ask that you consider it, and I have found that you have apparently already done so, albeit in isolation from us entirely. Now please don't take this as an attempt to persuade you, because I doubt very much a phone call from me could do that when you have so esteemed a person as Dr Thomas Jennings on the other side of the argument. I do however take to task this stuff about shared values."
"Just as you, the Excalbians and the Knootians seem to have committed to this course of action without concern for Caldan sentiments or input and now call, after having already made your decision, with the pretense that asking us to be in on this endeavour from the beginning, an endeavour to which you already have committed, is some great show of friendship, some great collaboration.
"First, the idea that we've intractable differences I find a dramatic and disturbing departure from all previous Caldan foreign policy in the region. It is something, frankly, I had sooner thought to hear from my own Deputy Chancellor than a Caldan Prime Minister." Sir Thierry said. "But if we grant that, I still dismiss the idea that shared values make anybody comfortable. In the last seven years alone Pantocratoria has come to the brink of war with Knootoss, the Confederation of Sovereign States, and Xirnium, and has been to war in Iesus Christi, Upper Virginia and Marlund. I do not derive much comfort when I think of the history and values that Pantocratoria and Knootoss share, for instance, when not long ago we stood on the brink of war. What we lacked at that time was a common-enough interest. Whether you see a currency union as a boon or not, you must surely admit that values alone haven't proved enough for the Western Atlantic. And nor have treaties based on those values alone, like Lyeithen."
"It is simply reality, Sir Thierry," Trinh said. "You've observed the same conduct from Knootoss and Xirnium as we have. You must be aware that the Knootians are motivated, at least in part, by the expectation that the Xirniumites will not sign and will subsequently be treated as outsiders in the Western Atlantic, a concern shared by all nations watching this process unfold and unwilling to surrender their sovereignty to a superstate without democratic accountability, judicial process or human rights. The sovereign right of the Queen of Ameria to create a police state or of South Epheron to segregate and degrade its own population doesn't touch on the shared interests we are to have as a region." Trinh took another sip of water, calming herself. "You talk about shared interests and practicality but you can't summon them with a magic wand or a new currency arrangement. You express sadness that I note the differences between the Atlantic powers and then remind me that differences between Knootoss and Pantocratoria were once severe enough to lead to the brink of war. A currency union won't make those differences go away. It will only turn the differences in monetary policy once reasonably adopted by states with different economies into sources of international tension and internalise the damage of potential geopolitical or economic conflict. It creates a common interest only to the extent that any nation within the currency union will be potentially harmed by the inevitable destruction of its smaller and less efficient economies and will find itself obligated to bail them out, whether it be next year or thirty years from now."
"Frankly, Amber, I am not inclined to recommend that His Majesty find some suitable Xirniumite to whom to wed his youngest daughter." Sir Thierry said, trying to make his tone more jocular. "And yet, the alliances based on royal marriages are thus far the ones which have most stood the test of time in our region! Common interest is what holds our nations together. Now, if you don't want to expand on the common interests of the region by participating in a currency union at this time, then that is a decision which I naturally have to accept. But Pantocratoria is just as supportive of this idea as you seem opposed, and I intend to pursue it. I don't want this to be an unnecessarily contentious issue between us."
"Frankly, Sir Thierry, this government considers the formation of a currency union along the lines proposed by Knootoss to represent an abandonment of the shared values of human rights and democratic government which were once fundamental to Atlantic cooperation. Knootoss left Lyeithen because Aerion would not comport to human rights standards and yet now we're being asked to put those aside all together and embrace a plan designed, according to principles our best economists consider the purest non-sense, to create a common interest with Aerion and similar states while ignoring persistent abuse. Such a programme represents an abandonment of the principles, the policies and even the, as you like to say, interests which have formed the foundation of the Caldan-Pantocratorian alliance from the beginning. You would tie yourself to totalitarians and racialists in preference over your traditional alliances. You cannot expect this government to see it or to treat it as anything else. Of course it can only be contentious. Do you really think we can shrug off the formation of a regional bloc of this kind as simply not our affair?"
There was a long pause before the Prime Minister spoke again. "We have always considered Pantocratoria to be our closest and most important ally, Sir Thierry. We don't want that to change but...You have committed to a radical and transformative regional initiative which implicitly rejects every policy, every principle which underlay past regional cooperation as well as the spirits of the Treaties of Courtland and Lyeithen, an initiative which, it is our earnest and considered opinion, represents an absolute catastrophe from the perspective, not only of past human rights efforts, but from the perspective of the economic and geopolitical stability and prosperity of the region. You offered only after the fact consultation (and, as you said, you didn't call to discuss it, just to ask us to consider joining). What do you expect me to say, Sir Thierry? That I'm honoured you preferred to work on the details with us rather than the Knootians? I'm sorry it's come to this but we didn't make the decision. We're merely responding to it. I can't back down on this. I promise you, no Caldan Prime Minister of any party ever can or ever will back down on this. I'm sorry."
